Several months ago, a bicycle accessory claimed that it can generate drinking water from air. The self-filling bottle, dubbed as Fontus, is a simple contraption that is powered by solar energy to condense a drop of water per minute. A new technology, however, has emerged that promises to harvest water from air, but this time without the mechanical parts and the requirement of fuel in order to work.
The technology, which was invented by researchers at Harvard University, involves a simple material and nothing else. However, it is carefully constructed using inspirations from three living organisms: a beetle, a cactus and a pitcher plant. The researchers have combined their water-collecting traits in order to develop a textured material that can harvest water from thin air. The details are available in a paper published in the journal Nature.
The spherical bumps, which were found at the Namib desert beetle's back, were copied to collect water, condense them quickly and turn them into droplets. The researchers then poached the asymmetrical spikes trait found in cacti to funnel the collected droplets and form even bigger ones. These are now the material's components that mimic the pitcher plant. Particularly, the researchers used the special coating found inside the plant, which allows faster draining of water, according to Popular Science.
The water-collecting material can be used in regions with scarce water supply. It can also prove useful in industrial applications.
